The present disclosure relates to an exhaust-gas turbocharger for a motor vehicle having a supercharged internal combustion engine and a charge-air cooler.
In order to achieve an increase in performance of a combustion engine, the air to be fed for combustion can be compressed, for example, with a turbocharger before it is fed to the combustion chambers of the combustion engine. However, the compression of the air is simultaneously accompanied by a heating thereof which is disadvantageous for the combustion process to proceed optimally. Consequently, for example, premature ignition or increased nitrogen oxide emission can be triggered. In order to avoid the disadvantageous consequences of the combustion of fed-in superheated air, it is known for a heat exchanger designed as a charge-air cooler to be arranged downstream of a turbocharger, by means of which heat exchanger the compressed air can be cooled to a permissible temperature before its combustion.
In the case of such charge-air-cooled engines, condensate, for example condensed water, forms under certain circumstances, for example particularly at low load or low outside temperatures. Above a certain quantity, if it remains within the charge-air-guiding parts, such condensate can lead to damage to the engine, such as, for example, through ice formation, water shock or corrosion. This condensate must therefore be removed without any damage. The prior art discloses approaches for this which allow the condensate to be discharged from the charge-air cooler. Such an approach is disclosed for example in German laid-open specification DE 102 38 839 A1. A disadvantage of this approach is that, in the case of an engine design in which the charge-air guiding means is configured to fall continuously between the charge-air cooler and turbocharger, condensate accumulation can nevertheless occur outside the charge-air cooler.